I just read an interesting article by Caroline Baum at Bloomberg. It starts out with this quote:

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” — Barack Obama, Aug. 11, 2009

He’s so right, and it’s a fine example of how the government cannot manage running a business.

The only way the post office can stay in business is its government subsidy. The USPS lost $2.4 billion in the quarter ended in June and projects a net loss of $7 billion in fiscal 2009, outstanding debt of more than $10 billion and a cash shortfall of $1 billion. It was moved to intensive care — the Government Accountability Office’s list of “high risk” cases – - last month and told to shape up. (It must be the only entity that hasn’t cashed in on TARP!)

[...]

When Obama compared the post office to UPS and FedEx, he was clearly hoping to assuage voter concerns about a public health-care option undercutting and eliminating private insurance.

What he did instead was conjure up visions of long lines and interminable waits. Why do we need or want a health-care system that works like the post office?

What’s more, if the USPS is struggling to compete with private companies, as Obama implied, why introduce a government health-care option that would operate at the same disadvantage?

[...]

Impromptu Obamanomics is getting scarier by the day. For all the president’s touted intelligence, his un-teleprompted comments reveal a basic misunderstanding of capitalist principles. More [here].

Whodathunk? Obama’s never had a “real” job in the private sector, and has proven he has little understanding of the concept called “capitalism”.

From capitalism.org

What is capitalism?

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom.

On the flip side, Obama is dead-on when it comes to understanding how socialism works.

Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating state, public or common worker (through cooperatives) ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.

Funny how times have changed, or have they? Albert Einstein (an avowed socialist) wrote this in 1949.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

You still have GE/MSNBC and CNN. Speaking of CNN. Their own Larry King ran this clip last night showing Barney Frank laying the smack down on a woman at a town hall meeting who asked, “Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?” CNN conveniently left out the fact this wingnut is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat.

The circus continues.

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